++ ukchill.com ++

Dave Carson

Probably the best advice I can give any musicians who have fallen into the writing block trap is to temporarily switch styles – try a new genre of music, preferably one you wouldn’t normally listen to. Spend a few evenings immersing yourself in it (youtube is great for this).

The 4AM set (with Dave Carson on Guitar and Richard Woodling on sax) is so far out of rock territory that it allows me to experiment and try things that I would normally never put into my progressive tracks.

All we are trying to do is create chilled music with a latin/jazz flavour – I can bring in all sorts of influences from Weather Report to Portishead without worrying if it’s “cool” or “cliché”. In fact some cliché helps, because it makes the music more accessible. Using a couple of sampled loops as the basis for a jam is allowing us to work really quickly. I’m just recording these sessions in Ableton Live (leaving it recording) and then pulling out interesting melodic fragments afterwards to construct new tunes.

After the session, I can replace the sample loops with my own parts, we then learn the “found” tunes to complete the tracks! An interesting way to work, and one that is proving quite successful in producing quite a bit of new material.

Anyway – today’s track, “Down Town” (part of the 4AM set).

Obligatory band photo incorporating slightly awkward posing

Lost at Sea, one of the bands I work with (sitting in on bass from time to time) have finally released their album, which has only taken about 5 years to complete!

This is a bit of a shameless plug, as I produced the album in my studio and played on a couple of numbers.

It’s titled “Songs from Greatcoat days” and is available at any of their gigs. Check ‘em out!

Part of the new 4AM set.

This one features Richard Woodling on sax.

It’s a bit of a shame that I only get limited amounts of time to muck around in the studio, but that is definitely what the Christmas break is for (well, apart from spending time with the family, walking the dog, catching up on paperwork etc…).

Here’s a new jazzy groove with some laid back fretless work.

Some of you have been asking when I’ll be gigging again – well, I’m taking a break from rock for a while and have a new chilled Acid Jazz set with Dave Carson called 4AM. You can catch us on the first Sunday of every month at the Penn Central – 4 ’till 6 pm.

update – Chris (Croft) came ’round and kindly laid down some cool sax and flute for the track, so I’ve updated the mix to include it!

Thalamusic revisited. A Commodore 64, a Zzap!64 cassette tape and a couple of synths I wish I had back in 1987. One for all the 8-bit geeks out there!

I’ve had a bit of spare time this weekend, and I’ve re-discovered some old Amiga stuff I had -- including a (rather lame) cover of Thalamusic I did many years ago. Firing up MilkyTracker let me export the nice’n'crunchy 8-bit samples that I originally made from a Zzap!64 cover cassette (an early computer games magazine), so I had to do the only sensible thing and rework the track using some of the (slightly better) gear I have around these days!

I re-implemented the classic bass synth line using the JP-8000 RPS feature, and tracked the swooshy noises from my Novation Nova, finally programming up a new lead sound on a Fantom Xa -- I tried to recapture some of Rob Hubbards airy choir sound he used on the tape version. I also kept a few sounds from the original C64 game, just for nostalgia!

In the interests of getting my music out there, I have decided to make stream-able full versions of all the songs from the album available on the Last.FM website, at least for a short while!

Listen to 20 Years from the album:

An early cut of the visualisation for “We are the Mantra”. For some time now I have wanted to experiment with live visuals when putting on a gig -- unfortunately, the kit needed to do this used to be massively expensive and only really suitable for the big name bands. But now it seems that the technology has come on substantially in the last couple of years and VJ’ing is a thriving art at a reasonable cost.

I see no reason why the dance-headz should have all the fun using the same tools as part of a live rock performance seems like a great way to enhance a show.

“The last thing the men behind the curtain want is a conscious informed public capable of critical thinking. Which is why a continually fraudulent zeitgeist is output via religion, the mass media, and the educational system. They seek to keep you in a distracted, naive bubble. And they are doing a damn good job of it.”

Listen to “Slaves to Money” from the album: